The Littlest Missionaries: A New Christian Plot to Invade Public Schools

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/education/littlest-missionaries-new-christian-plot-invade-public-schools



When he was 15, Jim ran drugs for a cult group. When I first heard his story, I was shocked – not just that the group was running drugs, but that they had directed one of their youngest recruits to do the dirty work for them. Then I learned why it made sense in a technical sort of way: the cult leaders reasoned that the older members, if caught, would face serious sentences and lifetime records, whereas the kids could get away with an unpleasant but not life-altering juvenile detention. It was a matter of using kids to do what the grown-ups didn't want to risk doing themselves.

In a tactical sense, religious fundamentalists in America appear to have taken a page from the same book. The constitution and the law prohibits adults from, say, establishing ministries within public schools aimed at proselytizing to the children during school hours. But a growing number of religious activists have come to realize that it's technically legal if they get the kids to do their work for them. OK, so religious proselytizing is not the same thing as running drugs – but manipulating kids to exploit legal loopholes isn't pretty wherever it happens.

This tactic has been tested and deployed in a great number of situations already in schools across the country. Right now, a large group of fundamentalist organizations and church denominations is making a big bet that they will be able to pull it off on a national scale, starting in 2013.

If you go to the Every Student Every School website, you'll see that their dozens of promotional videos are first-rate. The music is great, the cameras are professionally handled, the sound bites are short and snappy. Their message is very clear.

[southernyankeebelle]

1. I remember seeing the Jesus Camp. Yes people need to be aware of this in schools.

[MineralMan]

2. This isn't really a new thing.

Back in my churchgoing days in the 1950s and early 60s, which coincided with my childhood and teen years, there was always a push for us kids to evangelize our peers. Now, I wasn't attending a fundie church at all, my church was a Presbyterian church. But, we were always encouraged to bring friends to church, tell them the "Good News," etc. Of course, any such efforts received instant scorn from our peers, so we didn't do it, but there was always someone pushing us to evangelize.

There were kids who did evangelize at school, but they were pretty much considered to be stupid, awkward, and not to be listened to. That lesson was clear to all of us, so we just ignored the whole thing.